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Press releases Saturday 7 January 2006
Please remember to credit the BMJ as source when publicising an article and to tell your readers that they can read its full text on the journal's web site
(http://bmj.com). Viral infection at birth linked to cerebral palsy Questions over ±healing effect± of magnets Predicting the future of primary care in England BMJ Online First Exposure to certain viral infections shortly before and after birth (the perinatal period) is associated with cerebral palsy,
finds a study published online by the BMJ today.
These findings support the theory that infections during this period can trigger brain damage and the development of cerebral
palsy.
The study took place at the Adelaide Women±s and Children±s Hospital in Australia and involved 443 children with cerebral
palsy and 883 control babies. All babies were born to white mothers between 1986 and 1999.
Blood samples taken within a few days of birth were used to test for the presence of neurotropic viruses (a group of viruses
including herpes viruses, which can all cross the placenta and infect the fetus).
Exposure to viral infection was common in all newborn babies, especially in preterm babies, implying that infection before
birth may also be linked to preterm delivery.
Herpes group B viruses were found more often in babies who were later diagnosed with cerebral palsy than in control babies.
In fact, the risk of cerebral palsy was nearly doubled with exposure to herpes group B viruses.
Despite some limitations, this study shows that perinatal exposure to neurotropic viruses is associated with preterm delivery
and cerebral palsy, say the authors. Future studies are planned to investigate the possible causes of this link, they conclude.
Contact: (2) Questions over ±healing effect± of magnets
Magnetic devices that are claimed to be therapeutic include magnetic bracelets, insoles, wrist and knee bands, back and neck
braces, and even pillows and mattresses. Annual sales are estimated at more than a billion dollars globally.
But Professors Leonard Finegold and Bruce Flamm argue that many studies of magnet therapy are suspect because it is difficult
to blind subjects to the presence of a magnet. They suggest that money spent on expensive and unproved magnet therapy might
be better spent on evidence based medicine.
More importantly, self treatment with magnets may result in an underlying medical condition being left untreated, they warn.
Magnets are touted by successful athletes, allowed to be widely advertised, and sold without restrictions, so it is not surprising
that lay people think that claims of therapeutic efficacy are reasonable, they write. However ± even theoretically ± magnet
therapy seems unrealistic.
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. Patients should be advised that magnet therapy has no proved benefits.
If they insist on using a magnetic device they could be advised to buy the cheapest ± this will at least alleviate the pain
in their wallet, the authors conclude.
Contacts: Professor Bruce Flamm, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Riverside, CA, USA
Email: Bruceflamm@aol.com (3) Predicting the future of primary care in England
The forthcoming white paper on health and community services in England will affect all of our futures, so the BMJ asked some
people with an interest in general practice to predict the future.
General practices will be highly developed strategic organisations collaborating with each other in a community network, predict
senior doctors at the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Their vision is for a strong and vibrant primary healthcare system that is patient centred, consistently of high quality,
safe, and accountable. They urge policy makers is to build on the strengths and values of general practice, and avoid policies
that run the risk of fragmenting care.
For Peter Lapsley, Chief Executive of the Skin Care Campaign, 2015 sees control of NHS budgets returned to central government
and targets for access to general practitioners abandoned. Meanwhile, patients have embraced health promotion messages and
regularly attend wellbeing centres, allowing doctors and nurses to spend more time with the sickest patients. The concept
of ±patients as partners in their own healthcare± has also become a reality.
GP Dougal Jeffries predicts a return of a system based on social values. Expenditure on weapons has been diverted to the NHS,
coordination and cooperation have superseded market forces, and patients are dealt with quickly and appropriately.
For Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the BMA±s General Practitioners Committee, the future finds general practice under pressure.
Political interference has left the largely female profession feeling undervalued. The nature of general practice has also
changed considerably, with larger practices offering a wider range of services and video phone consultations relieving some
of the problems of access. The NHS is still, ostensibly, free at the point of use but patients have to pay for non-essential
services including hotel charges in hospital.
By 2015, health care will be safe, clinically effective, and patient focused, concludes Carol Black, President of the Royal
College of Physicians. She believes that patients will reject behaviours that harm health, but will continue to rely on their
general practitioners to help them make decisions about health. Medical professionalism will ensure high levels of public
trust.
Contacts: Dougal Jeffries, General Practitioner, Health Centre, Isles of Scilly, UK
Email: dougal.jeffries@ioshc.cornwall.nhs.uk Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the BMA General Practitioners Committee, London, UK
(via Linda Millington, BMA Press Office): Email:
lmillington@bma.org.uk Public Affairs Division BMA House Tavistock
Square London WC1H 9JR
and from: the EurekAlert website, run by the
American Association for theAdvancement of Science(http://www.eurekalert.org)
(1) Viral infection at birth linked to cerebral palsy
(Neurotropic viruses and cerebral palsy: population based case-control study)
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/bmj.38668.616806.3A
Catherine Gibson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Adelaide, Women±s
and Children±s Hospital, Adelaide, Australia Email:
catherine.s.gibson@adelaide.edu.au
(Editorial: Magnet therapy)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7532/4
Patients should be advised that magnet therapy has no proved benefits, and that any healing effect is likely to be small,
say US researchers in this week±s BMJ.
Professor Leonard Finegold, Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Tel (office): +1 215 895 2740 or (home): +1 610 566 4362
Email: l@drexel.edu
(Visions of primary care in 2015)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7532/41
What will English primary care look like in 2015?
Mayur Lakhani, Chairman, Royal College of General Practitioners, London, UK
Tel (via Gillian Watson, PR Manager): Email:
gwatson@rcgp.org.uk
Peter Lapsley, Chief Executive, Skin Care Campaign, London, UK
Email: plapsley@eczema.org /
peter.lapsley@btopenworld.com
Carol Black, President, Royal College of Physicians, London, UK
Tel (via Rachel Lea, RCP Press Office): Email:
Rachel.Lea@rcplondon.ac.uk
Embargoed press releases and articles
are available from:
(contact: pressoffice@bma.org.uk)